Kelowna Capital News, June 18, 2013

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WEST KELOWNA

SENIORS

THOMPSON Okanagan Lacrosse League scoring leader Brendan Urban leads Kelowna Raiders into first place showdown with Vernon Tigers.

LOCAL RESIDENTS showed interest in open house last week held to outline the district’s capital projects and plans for this year.

THE SAFETY Seniors Fair last week addressed the issue of how seniors can avoid being victims of fraud scams.

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TUESDAY June 18, 2013 The Central Okanagan’s Best-Read Newspaper www.kelownacapnews.com

serving our community 1930 to 2013

▼ COURT

Arson conviction leads to jail time

Cheryl Wierda

CONTRIBUTOR

A drunken young man who set his family’s former rental home ablaze last summer has been sentenced to another 15 months on jail. Just before midnight on July 21, 2012, Joshua Aaron Gauley, now 21, went to the St. Amand Road rental home his father, wife and children had just moved out of after the landlord threatened eviction and lit the carport on fire and set fires near two vehicles. “It’s hard to say exactly what the motivation was,” said defence lawyer Matthew Ford. “What we do know is that he was very intoxicated.” However, he was not so drunk that he didn’t know what he was doing, said Judge Robin Smith during sentencing Monday. “Why do I say that? Because there were three places where the fire was started,” said Smith. Beore starting the fires, the court heard, Gauley and a 14-year-old he met that night got into a neighbour’s van and turned on the headlights to illuminate where they were going to set the fires. “Now, that is a recipe for getting caught,” suggested Smith. See Jail A6

DOUG FARROW/CONTRIBUTOR

WILD RIDE…The annual Skylands Downhill longboard racing event was held in the Wilden subdivision last weekend along Up-

per Canyon Drive and Rio Drive.

▼ AGRICULTURE

China offers huge opportunity for local cherry growers

Judie Steeves

STAFF REPORTER

After seven years of effort on the part of a number of industry organizations and governments, the door has opened for Okanagan cherries to be exported to China this year. The agreement could mean that by 2014, sales of fresh cherries to China could be worth $10 million, increasing to $20

million annually over the next five years. Kelowna grower Christine Dendy, president of the B.C. Cherry Growers’ Association, said she’s pleased that their efforts have finally paid off. An agreement was announced Friday by federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, who said China is a rapidly growing market for Canadian farmers with export sales

of agricultural products to China worth $5 billion in 2012. Lake Country cherry grower David Geen, chair of the association’s market access committee, explained that it’s typical to have a trial period when a country opens its market to a new product such as cherries, to ensure there are no adverse impacts on the local industry, such as from a new pest or disease.

Of particular concern to China is the Western Cherry Fruit Fly, which is a pest that is not currently an issue in that country. So the inspectors will be vigilant in efforts to ensure it’s not present in any fruit to be exported from B.C. One of the stumbling blocks in negotiations has been a blanket requirement for a cool treatment the Chinese felt would prevent an infestation

from being imported with B.C. fruit. But Geen says there’s actually not even any proof that would prevent it. Such a treatment would be harmful to fruit quality. Instead, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and other countries to which B.C. exports cherries, rely on the brown sugar test to detect that pest. The Chinese have also required that another incu-

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bation test be performed on cherries from every orchard from which cherries would be exported to China this year, at the Pacific Agri-food Research Centre in Summerland, to ensure no Western Cherry Fruit Fly is present before fruit is shipped. This year, sales will be limited because part of the agreement is that the B.C. industry will host two inspectors from China throughout the harvest

this season, to approve every shipment. Geen said they expect the presence of inspectors here and the incubation test will only be required this first year, until they are comfortable with Canadian protocols. All will be at the cost of growers, he noted, and they will apply for funding to help with that cost.

See Growers A6

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